He held out a knife to me. “There must to be something you can teach me.”
I didn’t take the knife. “No. You looked fine.”
“Lea, you’re supposed to be training me.”
“I am, I just . . .” I rubbed the crack on my mask. “I’m not the best knife thrower.”
Les leaned closer. “I’m sorry, what was that? Did you just admit to being bad at something?”
“I never said I was perfect.”
Les laughed louder than was necessary. I turned my back on him. “We’re done for the night.”
“Lea, no, wait.” He grabbed my elbow. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you. I just honestly never guessed I’d be able to best you in anything. Come on, don’t leave me. I’ll give you some tips. No teasing. I promise.”
He passed me a knife. I sighed and showed him what I could do. It was worse than I remembered. I didn’t even hit the target. The knife skidded across the roof until it crashed into the rest of the weapons.
I frowned, but Les only nodded thoughtfully. “Take off your belt and weapons. They’re throwing off your balance.”
I did as he said and pushed my mask to the top of my head. He handed me another knife and this time he stood behind me. He lined his arm next to mine and grasped my hand and the knife.
His body felt warm and hard, pressed against mine.
“It’s a smoother motion.” He moved my arm with his. “Clean and quick. It doesn’t have to be powerful. That can come later.”
I let him instill the rhythm in my arm. He began to hum quietly, and when I was ready, I released the knife. The hilt crashed into the target and the knife dropped to the ground, but at least I’d actually struck what I was aiming for.
I smiled and Les whooped, spinning me around, my hand still in his grasp.
“See!” He grinned and squeezed my fingers.
This. It was so easy to feel carefree around him. But that wasn’t for me. I pulled my hand free, and the smile faded from his face.
“Something’s bothering you,” he said.
“It’s nothing.”
“Oh, it’s clearly something.”
I returned to the knives, packing them up. “It’s nothing and it’s everything. We’re running out of time here and Lefevre’s poking around, following me. I made a mistake when I first arrived, and now he’s trying to trap me or trick me into making another so he can pin a murder on me. Yours, actually. Well, not only yours.”
He straightened and frowned. “That sounds like more than nothing, Lea.”
“No, it’s fine. Really. I can handle him. And I don’t plan on staying long enough for him to charge me.”
He rotated a shoulder. “What if the firebomb fails? Do you have a backup plan for the Da Vias?”
“None of that matters unless Marcello tells you where to find them,” I snapped.
Les waved his hand at me. “I know, I know.”
I shrugged. “I might just walk in there and face them head on.”
“What?” he barked. He opened his mouth to say something else, but then he closed it and looked away.
“What were you going to say?”
“Nothing.” He shook his head and smiled at me. But the smile was forced. He was trying to be nice, but he was keeping something hidden.
“It’s not nothing,” I said. “Don’t lie to me.”
His smile vanished. “I’m not a liar.”
“Yes, you are. I can tell you’re hiding what you really think.”
His eyes flashed and his jaw tightened. I was so used to him being friendly and nice that this new Les made me step back. “Fine. Lea, you’re crazy. You’ll get yourself killed.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Well, until you get the location of the Da Vias, none of this even matters! And so what if I die? I don’t see why that’s any concern of yours.”
“You don’t see . . . Lea . . . Argh!” He threw his hands into the air, then snatched his cloak from the roof and walked away from me.
“Where are you going?”
He looked over his shoulder. “For someone so smart, you can be ridiculously idiotic sometimes.”
He jumped to the nearest roof.
Blood rushed to my face. How dare he? I was his teacher—he couldn’t speak to me like that!
“Les,” I shouted. “Alessio! Don’t you walk away from me!”
He stomped away faster.
I pulled my mask down and raced after him, trying to close the gap. He sped up, determined to get away.
Oh no you don’t!
He couldn’t outrun me, not when I was this mad and this determined to catch him.
He dropped off the roof into an alley between the two buildings. I blindly jumped after him, trusting there would be ground beneath me.
I landed in a crouch. The alley was a dead end, empty except for a door boarded up with a single piece of lumber. Alessio stood before me. I grabbed his shoulder.
“Les, what the—”
He gripped my wrist and pulled me beside him. “Shut up!”
At the entrance to the alley floated the white specter of an angry ghost.
It was a man, or had been a man at one time. I could clearly see his trousers and vest. He hovered quietly and seemed asleep, or adrift.